A heat exchanger such as an air conditioner is generally formed by stacking a plurality of heat exchanger fins. The heat exchanger fin has a plurality of through-holes or cutaway portions through which heat exchange tubes are inserted.
Such heat exchanger fins can be manufactured by using an apparatus for manufacturing heat exchanger fins as illustrated in FIG. 13.
An apparatus 200 for manufacturing heat exchanger fins includes an uncoiler 212 where a metal thin plate 210 of aluminum or the like as a thin-plate material has been wound into a coil shape. The metal thin plate 210 pulled out from the uncoiler 212 via pinch rollers 214 is inserted into an oil application device 216 where machining oil is applied on a surface of the metal thin plate 210. Then, the metal thin plate 210 is supplied to a mold 220 that is provided in a mold press unit 218.
The mold 220 includes an upper die set 222 that is vertically movable in an internal space of the mold 220, and a lower die set 224 that is in a stationary state. By this mold 220, a plurality of cutaway portions or collared through-holes provided with collars having a predetermined height around the through-holes are formed at predetermined intervals in predetermined directions (arranged in matrix).
The metal thin plate 210 having the through-holes or cutaway portions, for example, is hereinafter referred to as a metal strip 211.
The metal strip 211 processed in this manner, in which a plurality of heat exchanger fins to be a product are arranged in a width direction, is formed.
An inter-row slit device 225 is therefore provided at a downstream position relative to the mold 220. After the metal strip 211 is formed by the mold press unit 218, the metal strip 211 is fed intermittently by a feeding device 226 to the inter-row slit device 225. The inter-row slit device 225 cuts the metal strip 211 by an upper blade 225A and a lower blade 225B that engage with each other, so that the metal strip 211 has a predetermined product width. Thus, a product-width metal strip 211A that has a strip shape being long in a conveying direction can be formed.
The product-width metal strip 211A formed by the inter-row slit device 225 is cut to have a predetermined product length by a cutter 227, and thus, heat exchanger fins 213 as final products are formed. The heat exchanger fins 213 formed in this manner are housed in a stacker 228. In the stacker 228, a plurality of pins 229 are provided to stand up in a vertical direction, and the heat exchanger fins 213 are stacked and held in the stacker 228 in a manner that the pins 229 are inserted into the through-holes or the cutaway portions of the heat exchanger fins 213.